Road Songs by Nick Swan

A group of songs I wrote about or while on the road in the last 2-3 years before the pandemic. Being off the road gave me the chance to finally record them properly.

As I was assembling some unrecorded songs for this release, I started to notice a similar theme - The Road. It's a pretty familiar theme for most musicians, and some of the greatest songs of all time have been written about it. I've written about it in the past, too. Songs like "SOS" from my band's "Sink or Swim" album, or "American Song" certainly fit that bill. But never before had I done an entire album of those songs.

I certainly didn't intend to write an album of "road songs," but that's just the way they came out, so that's what I decided to call the record. I spent the past several years based in Nashville but traveling all over the country to play guitar for other country singers, particularly Billy Brown. That's his Stetson hat on the cover pic, taken from inside his Sprinter van. Along the way I learned a lot about being a "pro" musician and what it takes to live that lifestyle, for better and worse.

The album begins with a spoken phrase of mine, "There's nothing but pure void out here as we plunge headfirst into the long, dark American night." I don't know how or when I came up with that, but I certainly experienced it many times. It also sounds like something Jack Kerouac may have written, which makes sense, because I read his works like "On the Road" a lot in the past few years.

One of my favorite places to travel in the past few years has undoubtedly been Denver, and Colorado as a whole. The first track, "Roadworn," was written at the "band house" during a run at the famous Grizzly Rose. I was definitely feeling roadworn at that time. Other songs written in or about Colorado include "If I had wings," "Stuck in the middle of America again" and "All in All (No Goodbyes)." It's safe to say that Colorado was probably my biggest muse on this album.

"Pensacola" was written about another one of my favorite places to play. We got to play at one of the Margaritaville bars several years in a row, and I really grew to love the town, even though I'm not a huge beach guy.

"California Time" was written after a trip I took with Billy for an audition for "The Voice." We didn't get the audition, but it was a great trip, with stops in San Francisco, Sacramento and the beautiful Lake Tahoe.

"17 Miles 2 Sedona" is the oldest song on the album, one I began writing on a trip to Arizona while I was still living in NYC. I literally saw a road sign that said "Sedona: 17 miles" and the title popped into my head. That trip convinced me that there was more to life than living in NYC.

Other songs, like "Tennessee Troubadour" and "Go Down South," celebrate my southern roots. Although I often joked that I moved to Nashville to tour the Midwest, it still has been great to be back down south and explore this region that is so rich in culture and history, good and bad.

As I said above, some of the greatest songs of all time have been written about the road, and I couldn't resist putting a couple on here. One thing I was really looking forward to in 2020 was seeing the Black Crowes in Nashville with the Robinson brothers reunited. It's something I wasn't sure would ever happen, so I was definitely bummed to see that canceled. I came up with my version of their road classic "Wiser Time" last summer, and decided to include it here. It features my National guitar. And the good news is that now the tour is back on, and I can't wait to see the Crowes later this summer.

Maybe the greatest road song of all time is "Turn the Page" by Bob Seger. Anyone who has toured in a band can identify with it. It's also one of my dad's favorite songs, so I wanted to include it here for him, if nothing else. The pandemic has reinforced how important family is, and was part of the reason I decided to move back to East TN, at least for the time being. This is a song I've done many times live, and I always tried to combine Seger's version with Metallica's heavier interpretation.

After I had already ordered CD's for this album, I spontaneously wrote another song called "Back on the Road." I was so excited about this song that I quickly recorded it and put it out as a single ahead of my first show back in Tupelo. I'm including it as a bonus track here with the album, in addition to the single, so you can get it either way.

I hope everyone enjoys hearing these songs, and I look forward to playing them in front of actual people again. This was a complete "Swan Studios" production, with everything played, recorded, and mixed by myself right here in South Knoxville. I used most of my guitars, an Epiphone bass and a cheap Ludwig starter drum kit I bought to play around the house. I'm proud of the "garage band" sound I got for the album, and I think it works. I do really look forward to playing with other musicians again, however, especially ones who are much better than me...

Tennessee Troubadour. Playing a mix of America's best roots music, from blues & folk to classic rock & 90s grunge.

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